Governments through their Judicial infrastructures are investing so much in terms of Training personnel, finance and technology in prosecution of computer related crimes.
However, given the very technical nature of this emergent area of law and science, there is a yawning gap in legal education of lawyers and Judges and paralegals on how to address and tackle issues dealing with computer evidence and digital document management.
This is not a level playing field particularly as it applies to defence lawyers who do not have the same quality and access to specialist training and expert resources. When it comes to sourceing and incorporating computer evidence in a case,a majority of defence lawyers are not well positioned to matched the resources of the State.
Balanced Justice in our legal system requires that both sides of a legal issue have the resources and access required to have their day in court. Unfortunately, the cost of training and the protocol for deploying computer and digital evidence to prove or contest the probity of computer evidence is prohibitive especially for the defence in a criminal matter.
It is suggested, that legal training institutions and the Judicial authorities make the training and deployment of computer and digital evidence a top priority going forward. This is even more urgent, given the fact that about 90% of corporate documents now pass through computers and about 70% of those documents are never printed but remain stored on computers and other digital devices like Mobile phones.
3 comments:
Good day,
Please I was wondering if you have any useful tips for me. I'm a final year law student in Nigeria and I want to write a project on the incorporation of digital and forensic evidence into our law so that they can be admissible in trials. I hope you could give me handy tips or research materials.
Hi,
I would suggest you start by first identifying any relevant local statute and Case law that deals with computer and communication evidence and electronic document admissibility.
Once you have enough materials from the Nigerian jurisdiction then you can proceed to a comparative study by drawing examples from the United kingdom and the US. The Computer Misuse Act in the UK and in the US, ECPA and the Federal rules of Civil procedure will be a good starting point.
If you let me have your full details, I may be able to support your project as it affects research within the Nigerian jusrisdiction.
ok thank you. I checked statutes and dint see it. the only reference which has been made to it is the supreme court rules which just allows it to keep up with changing times. The main legislation ie the evidence act is yet to be ammended. I havent really seen case laws in this area.
my email address is Ifyanih@gmail.com
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